How to Repair a Scotts Classic Reel Mower

Repairing the height adjusters on a Scotts Classic

The Scotts Classic is a very reliable reel mower that doesn’t typically have many repair requirements. One issue that does come up now and then is that the height adjusters won’t stay in place and keep popping out of adjustment.

Just bending the lever while the back wheel is still attached doesn’t help, because it doesn’t bend the lever at the proper point that makes it stay in place. You’ll have to remove the back wheel to fix this problem. But the good news is that you really only need one tool — a basic pair of pliers. Although a wrench might be helpful too if you have one in your toolbox.

Step 1 to fix the height adjusters.

Remove the rear wheel on the side where the height adjuster does not remain properly in place while mowing. If you have a socket wrench or a large adjustable wrench, you can use that to remove the wheel. If not, a simple pair of pliers will do. If you use pliers, be careful to get a good grip so that you don’t round off the bolt.

Now that you have removed the wheel, you will see the entire height adjustment mechanism. The hole at the top of the photo is where the wheel bolts back onto the mower. See how the lever is bent away from the metal piece where it should normally make contact? This is why the mower will not stay adjusted. You will carefully bend it back in place so that it pops correctly onto the gears that hold it at particular cutting heights.

Step 3 to repair the height adjusting mechanism.

Take your pliers and bend the lever near the base so that it properly stays in place. The reason you had to remove the wheel is because you can’t reach the right part of the lever that needs to be bent when the wheel is on the mower.

Step 4 to repair the height adjusters on the Scotts Classic reel mower.

As you can see from the photo below, the lever will now pop onto the adjustment gear correctly and stay in place while you mow. Try it out and make sure that you didn’t bend it too much so that it is too difficult to adjust. It should pop firmly onto the tooth and stay there, but you should also be able to move it to different teeth.

Step 5 to repair the height adjusters on the Scotts Classic manual mower.

Next, put the wheel back on, using either your pliers or a wrench. You are finished now. Try out the mower and make sure it is working correctly.